Code page 437 in the context of .nfo

⭐ Core Definition: Code page 437

Code page 437 (CCSID 437) is the character set of the original IBM PC (personal computer). It is also known as CP437, OEM-US, OEM 437, PC-8, or MS-DOS Latin US. The set includes all printable ASCII characters as well as some accented letters (diacritics), Greek letters, icons, and line-drawing symbols. It is sometimes referred to as the "OEM font" or "high ASCII", or as "extended ASCII" (one of many mutually incompatible ASCII extensions).

This character set remains the primary set in the core of any EGA and VGA-compatible graphics card. As such, text shown when a PC reboots, before fonts can be loaded and rendered, is typically rendered using this character set. Many file formats developed at the time of the IBM PC are based on code page 437 as well.

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👉 Code page 437 in the context of .nfo

In the Warez scene, .nfo (short for info) is a file name extension for a text file (sometimes called an NFO file) that accompanies and describes a release of pirated software or media. The file contains information such as title, authorship, year and license information. For software, it might contain installation notes. This information is delivered for publishing through digital media to make it searchable on the web as well as within local catalogues and libraries. This type of file is also often found in a demoscene production, where the respective group includes it for credits, contact details, and the software requirements.

This type of file has been described as the press release of the warez scene. Info files were ubiquitous, and sometimes required, during the era of the Bulletin Board System (BBS). The file was a stamp of authenticity, explicitly explaining what group released the software and described what modifications (or cracks) were applied if any. Once a software was packaged with an info file and then released, it was then officially owned by that group and no other group could ethically re-release that particular package. A typical warez info file was elaborate and highly decorated, and usually included a large ASCII art logo along with software release and extended warez group information. The most important information is which group, which cracker and which member actually tested and packaged. The designers of these info files, who worked closely or within the warez groups, frequently incorporated extended ASCII characters from the character set code page 437 in the file.

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⭐ Core Definition: Code page 437
👉 Code page 437 in the context of .nfo
Code page 437 in the context of Text mode
Code page 437 in the context of Code page 866

Code page 437 in the context of Text mode

Text mode is a computer display mode in which content is internally represented on a computer screen in terms of characters rather than individual pixels. Typically, the screen consists of a uniform rectangular grid of character cells, each of which contains one of the characters of a character set; at the same time, contrasted to graphics mode or other kinds of computer graphics modes.

Text mode applications communicate with the user by using command-line interfaces and text user interfaces. Many character sets used in text mode applications also contain a limited set of predefined semi-graphical characters usable for drawing boxes and other rudimentary graphics, which can be used to highlight the content or to simulate widget or control interface objects found in GUI programs. A typical example is the IBM code page 437 character set.

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Code page 437 in the context of Code page 866

Code page 866 (CCSID 866) (CP 866, "DOS Cyrillic Russian") is a code page used under DOS and OS/2 in Russia to write Cyrillic script. It is based on the "alternative code page" (Russian: Альтернативная кодировка) developed in 1984 in IHNA AS USSR and published in 1986 by a research group at the Academy of Science of the USSR. The code page was widely used during the DOS era because it preserves all of the pseudographic symbols of code page 437 (unlike the "Main code page" or Code page 855) and maintains alphabetic order (although non-contiguously) of Cyrillic letters (unlike KOI8-R). Initially this encoding was only available in the Russian version of MS-DOS 4.01 (1990), but with MS-DOS 6.22 it became available in any language version.

The WHATWG Encoding Standard, which specifies the character encodings permitted in HTML5 which compliant browsers must support, includes Code page 866. It is the only single-byte encoding listed which is not named as an ISO 8859 part, Mac OS specific encoding, Microsoft Windows specific encoding (Windows-874 or Windows-125x) or KOI-8 variant. Authors of new pages and the designers of new protocols are instructed to use UTF-8 instead.

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⭐ Core Definition: Code page 437

👉 Code page 437 in the context of .nfo

Code page 437 in the context of Text mode

Code page 437 in the context of Code page 866